"Here, this way," said Jarette, fiercely, "and now you'll see that I'm
not a man to be played with. I'm captain here now, and it's obey me
or--"
He snatched a pistol from his breast and held it menacingly toward
Frewen, who flashed out at him--
"Put that thing away, madman, and show me my patient. Which cabin is
it?"
"That one," said Jarette, surlily. Then showing his teeth, he said in a
peculiar tone of voice--"They say it's kill or cure with your set; let
it be cure this time, or perhaps it may be kill afterwards. Come on.
Go in there."
He signed to a man acting as sentry by one of the doors well aft, and
the man drew back while Frewen brushed by the scoundrel who held it
open, and entered quickly, I following ready to do everything I could to
help.
I entered that cabin fully expecting to see Miss Denning lying bleeding
on the floor, and I am sure that this was Mr Frewen's impression; but
to the surprise of both it was a totally different person, for there lay
the captain in one corner, his head slightly raised, staring at us
wildly as he held one hand pressed to his shoulder, and his eyes were so
fixed that for the moment I was ready to think that he was passing away.
But a faint smile came upon his face as he looked up at the doctor, and
then he smiled at me.
I darted a look full of horror and sympathy at him, and then closed the
door, while as I turned I saw that the woodwork side of the cabin was
marked by a bullet, for so I took it to be, which had splintered the
board all round a good-sized hole.
Mr Frewen went down on one knee by the captain, and took the hand which
rested on his shoulder, pressed it, and then began to examine the
injury.
"Come and help me, Dale," he said; "we must get him in a different
position."
"Perhaps--I can help," said the captain faintly. "The scoundrel shot
me."
"Don't try to talk," said Mr Frewen, quickly. "Wait till I have
bandaged the wound."
But as he spoke I noticed how he watched Captain Berriman, and seemed to
take special heed of him as he whispered the above words evidently with
pain.
"Is it very bad, doctor?" he whispered now after Mr Frewen had been
busy about his breast, and shoulder for a few minutes. "You can tell
me, I can bear it."
"Bad enough, but not so bad as it might have been if it had gone an inch
lower. But keep quiet, talking will only distress you, and tend to make
you feverish. There," he said at last, "there will be no more bleeding,
and that was the only danger to apprehend."
By this time the captain was lying in an easy position, carefully
bandaged and apparently suffering less.
"He came in--"
"Hush! don't tell me; I know--as he did to us with inviting
propositions. We heard your angry words, and the coward shot at you.
But that shriek, surely it was Miss Denning's?"
"Yes," whispered the captain. "The bullet crashed through there
afterwards and struck Mr Denning. Not hurt, but his sister shrieked on
hearing the shot and seeing him fall."
"Then they are in there?"
The captain nodded.
"And can hear our words?"
There was another movement of the head.
"Then let them hear that we are trying hard to put an end to this
miserable state of affairs. Mr Denning should be ready to help us if
called upon."
There was a gentle tapping on the partition at this, and I was on my way
to the bulk-head to reply, when the cabin-door was opened and Jarette
came inside.
"Come, doctor, you must be done if you can find all that time for
talking. Can you save him?"
"I am trying, sir, if only to be prepared to have a witness against you
when the time comes for your punishment."
"Oh yes, of course, doctor, we know all about that. This way, sir.
Now, boy. Come!"
"Good-bye, Captain Berriman," I said, as I leaned over my poor officer
and pressed his hand. Then in a whisper--"Cheer up! Perhaps we shall
re-take the ship after all."
Then I followed the doctor, and a minute later we were once more under
lock and key, while as I crossed the saloon I saw that a couple of men
were pacing up and down, pistol in hand.
I made a remark about this, and then I spoke about the way in which the
powder had driven in all the end of the saloon.
"I suppose Jarette must have used about all there is now."
Mr Frewen shook his head.
"Didn't you know?" he said. "There is a large quantity on board. It is
being taken--across for blasting purposes in New Zealand. Jarette, I
suppose, helped with the lading, and knew where it was stowed. That
accounts for its being brought out so soon."
"Pity we can't give them a dose of it," I said, "so as to frighten them
into better order. Just fancy, Mr Frewen, dropping a bagful into the
forecastle with a fuse attached and lit; how they would run for the
hatch, and before they could reach it--bang!"
"Yes, with that part of the deck blown up and a dozen or so of wretched
mutilated creatures lying about shrieking for help. Well, Dale, I dare
say there is one of the bags somewhere about the cabins, but I don't
think you could use it."
"Well, now you talk like that, I don't think I should like to," I said.
"I am sure you would not, boy. You and I could not fight that way. We
must have a better way than that."
We lay there trying to think out some plan for the rest of that day,
sometimes talking to ourselves, sometimes with Mr Preddle joining in;
but for the most part he could talk about nothing else but his own
troubles, and about his fish, which he was sure were dying off rapidly,
for no one, he said, could attend to them like he would himself.
"Unless it was you, Dale," he whispered apologetically. "You certainly
did seem to understand them almost as well as I did myself. Ah, I'd
give almost anything to be out there attending to the poor little
things, but I could not go at the cost that was proposed."
He sighed very deeply, drew back, and the little hole was darkened
directly after, for Mr Preddle had lain down to meditate upon the
sufferings of his fish, and when I peeped through at him a few minutes
later he was still meditating with his eyes shut and his mouth open,
while a peculiar sound came at regular intervals from between his lips.
Mr Frewen looked at me inquiringly as I turned round.
"Sound asleep," I whispered.
"Poor Mr Preddle," said Mr Frewen, "he is a very good amiable fellow,
but I think that you and I must make our plans, Dale, and call upon him
to help when all is ready."
I nodded, for I thought so too, and after listening for a few moments at
the door, we came to the conclusion that there was nothing to mind about
the sentries, so we proceeded to make our examination of our prison in a
more determined way.
Several times my fingers had played about the knife I had in my pocket,
and I had longed to bore holes in the cabin-door so as to watch the
sentries; but of course I was checked by the knowledge that by making a
hole through which I could watch them I was providing one by which they
could watch us.
The cabins on either side of the saloon were only so many portions of
the ship boarded off, and provided with doors, so that a couple of
carpenters would have had little difficulty in clearing away the
partition and making one long opening, but we had no tools, and the
slightest noise would have drawn attention to our acts; and these ideas
would, we knew, govern our actions in all we did.
Our idea was of course to get a board out between the doctor's cabin and
Mr Preddle's, and if possible one at the darkest portion of the place
close up to the ship's side; but examine as we would, there did not
appear to be one that it would be possible to move, try how we would.
"It seems to be a very hopeless case, Dale," said my companion at last
with a sigh, "unless we patiently cut a way through with your knife; one
cutting, while the other keeps on throwing the chips out of the window
so that they cannot be seen."
"But we shall make a big hole," I objected, "and the first time that
Jarette comes in he will see it, and put us somewhere else."
"Of course. It looks very hopeless, my lad."
"You see we want holes, sir, so that we could take out one board from
top to bottom quite whole, and put it back just as it was."
"Yes; but how are we to do that without tools?"
"I thought doctors always had a lot of tools," I said; "knives and saws
and choppers for operations."
"Ah!" he ejaculated. "My head has not come right yet after that injury.
Why, look here, lad!"
He went to a drawer fitted into a chest, and drew it open to take out a
mahogany case in which, lying on blue velvet, were some of the things I
had named--knives, and a couple of saws, beside other instruments whose
purpose I did not grasp.
"We draw the line at choppers, Dale," he said, smiling; "and I suppose I
ought not to devote my choice instruments to such a duty, but I think
these will do."
"Splendidly!" I cried in delight, as I quite gloated over the bright
steel saw. "Why, with one of those I can get a whole board out in an
hour or two."
"Without being heard?"
"I didn't think of that," I said. "Let's see what noise it would make."
"No," said Mr Frewen, quietly. "We must wait till night; and it will
be a very much longer task than you think, because we shall have to work
so slowly."
"Wait till night!" I cried impatiently.
He nodded, and the dreary, slow way in which the rest of that day passed
was terrible. It was as if the sun would never set; but Mr Frewen was
right. There were two interruptions to expect--the coming of the man
who would bring us our evening meal, a sort of tea-dinner-supper, and
possibly a visit from Jarette to fetch Mr Frewen to see the captain.
The man came with our comfortless, unsatisfactory meal, at which I
grumbled, but which Mr Frewen said was far better than ordinary prison
fare; and just at dark, as he had suggested, we were startled by the
sudden rattling at the fastening of our door.
Then Jarette appeared, and signed imperiously to Mr Frewen to follow
him.
My companion frowned, but he rose and followed; not to obey Jarette, as
he afterwards said, but to go and attend upon the captain.
I rose to go too; but as I reached the door, Jarette rudely thrust me
back, so that I staggered to the cabin-window.
"Non!" he ejaculated sharply; and the door was banged to and fastened
before I had recovered from my surprise.
"Never mind," I said to myself; "wait a bit," as I bit my lips and stood
with clenched fists, thinking in my annoyance how much I should like to
use them.
But I consoled myself by going to Mr Frewen's drawer and opening the
case and looking at the bright steel saws, and then talking in a whisper
to Mr Preddle, who came to the little opening to know whether anything
was the matter.
I did not tell him about the saws after I had said that Mr Frewen had
been fetched, but thought I would leave that for my companion to do, and
then waited till he came; but he was so long that I began to be afraid
he had been placed in another cabin, the mutineer chief having suddenly
become suspicious of our hatching a conspiracy to escape.
He came at last, though, to my very great relief, and told me that he
thought Jarette, in spite of his display of bravado and carelessness,
was alarmed about Captain Berriman's state, and afraid that he would
die.
"And is he in a dangerous state?" I asked anxiously.
"No; only a little feverish, as the natural result of his wound."
"That was what made you stay so long then?" I said.
"Well, no," he replied, with a smile. "I'm afraid I tried to impose
upon our new captain by assuming to be very much concerned about poor
Berriman's state; but I had another reason as well. I wanted to try and
have a few words with the Dennings, whom I could hear in the next
cabin."
"Yes; and did you?" I asked eagerly.
"No, I was too closely watched. I could have whispered to them through
the hole made by the bullet; but Jarette was at the door all the time
that he was not in the cabin watching me, and I could not say anything
aloud for them to hear without his knowing what I said."
"I know what I should have done," I cried.
"What?"
"Told them what our plans were in French."
"That would have been clever," he said dryly, "for a Frenchman to hear."
"How absurd!" I said. "Well then, in German."
"Equally absurd, Dale. I hardly know a word."
"Well then, in Latin."
"My studies in Caesar and Horace never gave me the power to be
conversational, Dale," he replied; and soon after, as it was now getting
late, and from the sounds we heard forward it was evident that the crew
were enjoying themselves, Mr Frewen proposed that we should make our
first start at cutting the board.
Word was passed through the opening to Mr Preddle, who was all
eagerness to begin, and asked for one of the little saws, so that he
might work at the top of the board while we cut at the bottom; but Mr
Frewen promptly decided that one of the instruments would make quite
enough noise, and told him that he must understand that our task was one
probably of days, for everything must be done slowly and carefully, and
in a way that would leave no traces behind.
"Very well," said Mr Preddle, almost petulantly, "you know best; but I
am very, very anxious to get out of this wretched cabin."
"So are we," said Mr Frewen. "Help us, then, by keeping guard by your
door, and at the slightest sound outside giving us the alarm."
"Yes, yes; of course," he said eagerly; and directly after, in the
darkness, I heard Mr Frewen open the drawer and the instrument-case, to
take out the little saw which might open our prison, and cut a way into
another for the scoundrelly mutineers.
"How are you going to begin?" I whispered, after listening at the door.
"Shall I bore some holes first to make a way in for the saw?"
"They will not be necessary," he replied. "I can manage to cut a way
across the last board but one."
"Why not the last?" I asked.
"Not enough room to work. I shall try to cut in a sloping way to splay
the board if I can, so that it will fit better when we put it back--if
we get one out. Hush!--don't talk."
I stood close by him, ready to help in any way he required, and expected
that when he grew tired he would ask me to take his place, so that no
time might be lost.
We had one advantage that I have not mentioned, and it was this. We
were of course locked in, but there was a bolt on the door, so that we
could secure ourselves on the inside from any sudden interruption; and
by keeping the door fastened, there would be time to hide the saw and
brush away the dust before any one who came was admitted.
My position was facing the little round window of the cabin as Mr
Frewen made the first start toward obtaining our freedom; and as the saw
began to bite at the wood with a sound like that which would be made by
a gnawing mouse, I stood gazing out at the beauty of the grand tropic
night. It was very dark, but it was a transparent darkness, with the
sky within reach of my vision thickly spangled with stars, which were so
brightly reflected in the calm sea through which we were gliding gently,
that there were moments when I could hardly tell where the sky ended and
the sea began.
Then faintly and steadily rasp, rasp, rasp went the saw, with so little
noise that it did not seem likely that any one out in the saloon would
hear it; and though at the first cut or two my heart began to beat with
dread, a few minutes later it was throbbing with exultation.
For every gnaw of that little keen-toothed instrument sent a thrill of
hope through me; and I did not stop to consider what we were to do, or
what were our probabilities of success when we reached the saloon, for
it seemed to me then that the rest would come. And on it went, gnaw,
gnaw, gnaw at the soft grain of the pine-wood board, very slowly, but
very surely, I knew; and I was just going to whisper to Mr Frewen, and
ask him whether he would like me to take a turn, when the sawing
stopped.
"Only for a few minutes' breath," he whispered.
"Shall I take a turn?"
"When we cut the bottom one. I am taller and stronger, and can get at
this better than you."
Then he began again, and I gazed through the cabin-window, and listened
both to his working on the thick board, and for any sound which might
indicate that a sentry had taken alarm.
But all was silent; and comforting myself with the belief that if the
noise was heard it might be taken for the gnawing of a rat, I listened
and watched the stars.
At last I was in such a state of nervous excitement that I was on the
point of begging my companion, to let me take a turn, when from being so
intensely hot I suddenly turned speechless and cold. For it suddenly
occurred to me that the stars were blotted out, and that the night was
blacker.
"A cloud," I said to myself at first, but even as I thought that, I felt
that it could not be; and at last I was lifting my hand to touch Mr
Frewen, and draw his attention to the strange phenomenon, when the
sawing suddenly ceased. My companion drew a long breath; and at the
same moment, as I felt drawn toward the window by some strange
attraction, to try and make out why it was so dark, there was the sound
of another deep breath, and I felt it hot and strange right in my face,
as in a hoarse whisper some one said--
"How are you getting on?"